Bunyip
The Bunyip, though often mistakenly referred to as Fera, were one of the original tribes of Garou. Their human kinfolk were the aboriginal tribes of Australia, and their animal kin the marsupial thylacines. History The Bunyip came to Australia shortly after the War of Rage. Lacking wolf kin, and seeking a deeper connection to their new homeland, they struck a deal with the Mokole, who taught them how to adapt themselves that they might breed with the thylacine. The Australian Camazotz were sympathetic to the Bunyip, and indeed were the ones who introduced them to the Mokole. The Nagah of the continent, finding common ground with the Bunyip, revealed their existence at the price of ostracism from the rest of their kind. The Rokea largely ignored them. However, the Bunyip population, never very large, gradually dwindled over time. Australia's Ananasi, dissatisfied that the decline wasn't faster, nudged the Aborigines into hunting the thylacines to near-extinction, until the only surviving population was on the island of Tasmania, too few to be viable. The Bunyip were living on borrowed time. It was their own cousins who dealt the finishing blow. Victorian Age After centuries of isolation, European Garou arrived with the white settlers in the late eighteenth century. The invaders sought to control the caerns of the Outback and fought with the Bunyip, eventually wiping them out in what became known as the War of Tears. Prior to their extinction, a few Bunyip (in the single digits) had made their way to America and were living in the American West. Their final fates are unknown, but it is presumed they also died, and with them the secrets of the Bunyip. Modern Nights Thanks to the War of Tears, the Bunyip no longer exist; the last of their surviving animal kin went extinct in the 1930s. The legacy the Bunyip left behind, in the end, is one of vengeance, for their spirits know who brought them to their doom. Foreign Garou who venture too deep into the Australian Penumbra disappear. Ananasi in Australia are hunted by the unstoppable predator known as the Yahwie, and few spider-changers will venture there. Revival? A member of the Jindabyne Council, the Child of Gaia geneticist Cernonous, has sought ways to restore the Bunyip. As the kin of the Bunyip is extinct, Cernonous begun to clone thylacines from stolen genetic material from exhibitions, and discovering a piece of Bunyip DNA in 2000. Using spirit magics of the Weaver, he managed to make these thylacines mate, and they produced a set of cubs that smelled like Garou, although a bit different. These cubs under went the First Change after merely two years and formed a provisional pack on their own. Cernonous's joy over his discovery, however, came quickly to an end, when he recognized that his "children" were far from the tales of the gentle Bunyip. Instead, they were highly aggressive, unnecessary brutal, and suspiciously secretive around him.A World of Rage, p.152-153 In one scenario of the Apocalypse, Cernonous's "Bunyip" reveal that they do not possess a spiritual half like other Garou, Cernonous was only able to recreate the animal and the human nature of the Bunyip, and the lacking spiritual bits were filled by Wyrm-spirits that noticed his experiment. These Bunyip, calling themselves the Hollow Walkers, forced their father to walk the Black Spiral and join them.Apocalypse (book), p.92-93 Organization Nomadic and solitary by nature, the Bunyip had little in the way of central organization. The members of the tribe usually maintained a few important or precious contacts among the Bunyip, but their primary companionship came in the form of the thylacine and Aboriginal Kinfolk they were dedicated to protecting. This created a limited communication network among the members of the tribe, making it hard to organize, and perhaps giving the invading settlers an advantage. Even in the last years of their existence, there was little, if any, communication between the fighting bands of Bunyip. At the end, the Bunyip who remained were clustered in small groups, each waging their own battle against the settlers using the Umbra and guerilla warfare, never coming together to form a whole. Tribal Culture Perhaps the most pacifistic and spiritual of the Garou, the Bunyip never went out seeking a battle. They only fought for survival or to protect those they loved. The coming of the Europeans and the Wyrm changed the tribal make-up greatly, bringing them forth as true warriors for the first and last time. Bunyip in homid form always resembled the Aboriginal people of Australia, while in lupus form, which they called the thylacinus form, they resembled the thylacine; although the thylacine strongly resembles a wolf, it is not actually in the canine family but is instead a marsupial. Nonetheless, the Bunyip were probably more like the modern dingo when they first got to Australia. So, the Gumagan (as the local Mokole refer to themselves) probably used their magic to help the Bunyip become more like the marsupial thylacine, in the same way the African Mokole helped a certain Red Talon faction become the Kucha Ekundu. Eventually, however, they were considered to be of the Garou when it was too late. No metis Bunyip were ever known to exist. Political Culture On rare occasions, the Bunyip and their human and thylacine Kinfolk would come together for a special meeting called a corroboree. Lasting a single night, the participants would both revel and engage in tribal poltics. Singing and dancing, storytelling, initiations, and funerals, and, in later years, councils of war would all be held on this single night. At dawn, the Bunyip themselves would slip away into solitude, although their kinfolk would often remain together to continue the celebrations. It was due to the more unpleasant business affairs that the meetings were usually seen among the Bunyip as important business and not so much an outright celebration. Religious Culture The Bunyip were one of the more spiritually-inclined tribes, taking their role as spiritual stewards very seriously. In fact, Bunyip, unlike the other Garou, rarely if ever, needed a focusing device before entering the Umbra. Frenzies were rare, even among the warriors of the tribe, and wisdom was prized over all. Caerns, which were places of importance in Bunyip legend, were open to all Bunyip all the time, without need for ritual or rite; non-Bunyip Garou, however, could access only a few caerns, and only with the right outsider rituals. Individual Bunyip see Category: Bunyip Version Differences As of Rage Across Australia, the Bunyip tribal totem was Rainbow Serpent; in later appearances, through Werewolf: The Wild West and the 20th anniversary edition, it was changed to Bunyip. The precise circumstances of the Bunyip's adoption of the thylacine as kin, and their relationship with the native Fera, changes between the 20th anniversary corebook and W20 Changing Breeds. In the corebook, they adopt the thylacine to establish a deeper connection with their new homeland, while Changing Breeds says it was due to lacking any kin of their own. Meanwhile, the Nagah decide to remain hidden in the core, but reveal themselves in Changing Breeds. Gallery Bunyip - W20 Core Rulebook, p. 388.jpg|Bunyip (W20, p. 388) Bunyip.spirit.jpg|Rage card References * , p. 110-112 * , p. 389-390 * , p. 31-32 Category:Garou tribes Category:Werewolf: The Apocalypse glossary